Ratzabi, Hila 2022
Blue Hour Reading Series with Faylita Hicks and Hila Ratzabi
Haymarket House
We fear from afar
The brutal waste of war
The extravagant arrogance of power.
We rage at the rage of men
Who refuse to see you, or rather,
Choose to see through you and thereby
Refuse to see themselves.
– Hila Ratzabi, “We See You: For Ukraine”
Watch Hila Ratzabi’s 2022 reading with Faylita Hicks at the Chicago Poetry Center:
Hila Ratzabi begins at 42:51 minutes.
When I heard the explosions I was watching TV
after putting the kids to bed. There was nothing on
and I didn’t feel like checking the news,
dear God, because how could I want
to hear, over and over again,
the same story. While falling asleep
my son said, “I have so many stories
in my pocket to tell you.” Someone’s son,
another one, is dead. All his stories
folded up inside the quiet earth.
– Hila Ratzabi, “Prayer for Solomon Teka”
Watch Hila Ratzabi perform at the Bowery Poetry Club:
Read Oak Park Public Library’s Feature on Hila Ratzabi:
Poet Hila Ratzabi is exploring the big questions & speaking for Earth
By Kristen Romanowski, Staff Writer & Editor Hila Ratzabi became a poet at age 7. As a New York City kid growing up in Queens, she was composing poems
